Music Festival News:Attached is an aerial shot of the Alamos Plaza de Armas one night during the Ortiz Tirado Music Festival (FAOT). This year's event broke all records during the nine days with more than 200 performances and events. Total attendees, I just read in today's Hermosillo newspaper, exceeded 100,000. If you would like to attend next year please let me know. We will contact you in a few months when we have a confirmation on the dates for January 2018.

'Piloto' News: A highlight on Saturday was a spectacular airshow provided by the Tiger Squadron from the Los Angeles area. Craig Ekberg of Rolling Hills, California was the group leader. I was able to sneak into a co-pilot seat for the show and didn't want it to end. Attached is a beautiful photo of three Nanchangs above the Alamos cathedral taken by Roberto Borrego of Alamos. Along with five aircraft from Los Angeles and one from Tucson, we had more than a dozen aircraft on the ramp along with three helicopters. If you are a 'Club Piloto' member we still have some rooms available for the upcoming March 13th-17th 'Club Pilotos Reunion'. We will have art and cooking classes, an around the world record setting speaker, plenty of great live entertainment, complimentary village tours for new members, a dozen hangar spots for the first arrivals on 'Early Bird' Sunday and fun for all. Here's the site page for more details, http://clubpilotos.com/site/events. www.tigersquadron.com

Tesla News:Hacienda de los Santos has been selected as an area charging facility for Tesla. Last year Tesla was the number one selling luxury car in the U.S. and recently dealerships began opening in Mexico. For US Tesla owners, in two months you will be able to make it to Alamos with just one two hour charging stop in Hermosillo from Arizona. Tesla is installing four charging stations at Hacienda de los Santos and it will be listed in their international directory.

More Electric News:On March 1st, Hacienda de los Santos will be the first facility in the State of Sonora (that we are aware of) to have a power generating unit to provide full power to the hotel's two restaurants, bar, spa and many rooms in the event of a power outage. Caterpillar of Cd. Obregon is handling the installation of the 80KW plant. This will guarantee all wedding parties, and other groups, that the 'show will go on' even when the federal power company doesn't.

Ecological News:We now have five solar collectors for domestic hot water for the commercial kitchen usage as well as four guest rooms. Also we have converted our laundry to water saving commercial equipment with a 30% reduction in water usage. Also, more than 95% of the entire property is illuminated with LED lighting reducing our electrical usage by more than 60%. In February we are introducing two new electric mountain bikes to our existing fleet of nine beach cruisers and mountain bikes. Our 'rain harvesting', from one area of the property, has worked very well in supplying water to our gardens from the 110,000 liter underground storage tank. We continue to look at every aspect of the property to make it more 'green' and, in the process, reducing the impact on our natural resources.